Post Climactic Comedown

What do you do when it's all over? Enjoy the magic in the mundane.

Photo by Elle Cartier on Unsplash

One of the reasons I’m so looking forward to getting married next week is for it all to be over. That sounds so negative and doom-laden, and I really don’t mean it that way. It’s more the build-up to this BIG DAY has been all-encompassing leaving absolutely no space for anything else. For the past six weeks, I haven’t got into bed before midnight, and it’s often been after one. I go through periods of cyclical intensity (/insanity) due to the nature of my job and as much as I love the feeling of accomplishment at the end, I’m also always relieved to be liberated from the acute focus it demands. This wedding has become my personality and as much as it’s been a lovely, life and love affirming ride, I am looking forward to re-engaging my brain and creative energies into something non lace-related. 

However much you anticipate wonderful moments in life, there is always that converse sense of release when it draws to a close. While I revel in my summer holidays, my God, I love getting back home. Nothing beats a hotel room, the little products, the buffet breakfast. Nothing of course, except for being amongst your own things, under your own roof, potentially with the curtains drawn closed and central heating whacked on. Christmas is great, but my favourite time is that bit running up to New Year, when the main event has come and gone, the pressure is off, and you can just lean into the long days of nothing. 

Since the pandemic, we have apparently collectively elevated life’s most indelible moments to yet further importance. Part of that has been the longer-term shift towards the experience economy. Put simply after our pent up, indoors-era, no matter what the economic picture, no matter what the political situation, we are going out out. Along with the huge boom (and inflated ticket prices) in experiences like concerts and festivals, big life celebrations act like tentpoles to boost and scaffold the rest of our year. Those dates on the calendar, the ones you cross all the other ones off to reach have psychologically become even more charged.